Singapore Summer Internship

Today I decided to take my mom's advice and go check out the Singapore Rowing Association (SRA). It is located on the edge of the Pandam Reservoir which provides water to the city's inhabitants (and incidentally a great area to row). It took a while to get there: first a MRT ride 3 stations east and then a 5km bus ride. An interesting part about transportation in Singapore is that the fares are variable, unlike in Canada where bus/metro tickets are fixed rates. Every station here has tables of fees for different distances and passenger types; there is usually a flat rate of around 0.70$ and about 0.10$ per additional km. The SRA itself wasn't too exciting (unless you're a rower, in which case it was phenomenal), basically just a bunch of shells and oars of all sizes: single, double, quad and eight. The reservoir provided a cool breeze as I walked along it to get back into town, which was well appreciated considering it hit 42C with humidity today.

After lunch I picked up a cable to upload pictures from my camera onto my laptop in yet another megalodon of a shopping centre. The highlight though was dinner, pictures of which are included below. It consisted of noodles with mushrooms in chili sauce and a bowl of soup containing minced meat, crab and fish balls. As I was served the cook cracked an egg into the broth and then lit a candle under the bowl. It was very tasty and by far the coolest thing I have eaten yet. While on the subject, here are a few culinary tips I have picked up and would like to share:

1. Pointing to something is the universal sign for "I want that"; comes in very handy when you can't pronounce/don't what you're ordering.

2. If the cook asks you something and you don't know what they said, just nod and smile. Chances are they just asking you if you want all the ingredients (fine for me since I'm not picky) or extra chili sauce.

3. If there is something in your food that you don't think you should eat, show your bowl to the cook. If it's a stone or something inedible, you'll get another free meal.

4. Do NOT stabs your chopsticks in rice, or anything for that matter. Everyone will stare at you weirdly. Same thing goes for eating with your hands, unless your a eating Indian food, in which case it's okay (make sure they are clean first though).Lue lisää